(1) Field of the Invention
At least one embodiment of the present invention relates generally to acoustics and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for enhancing psychoacoustic awareness of surroundings using plural directional sources.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Many people rely upon vision to provide spatial perception. However, others have diminished vision or no vision, which can impair such spatial perception. Such diminished vision or lack of vision can be of physiological and/or anatomical origin or may result from environmental phenomena (such as, for example, darkness, smoke, fog, chemicals, etc.). Impaired spatial perception can impair awareness of one's surroundings, which can impair mobility and performance of tasks.
Impairment or lack of vision can lead to more reliance on other sensory inputs, for example, hearing. External structures of the ear and the binaural inputs provided by two ears can facilitate spatial perception of sounds sources. However, many objects in one's surroundings may not normally emit audible sounds. Moreover, the characteristics of any sounds emitted by surrounding objects may be unknown and/or psychoacoustically confusing. Thus, a technique for generating a reliable excitation having familiar characteristics is needed to enhance psychoacoustic awareness of surroundings.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.